Personally, I find stuff easier to install in Linux than I do in Windows. Can anyone tell me how to install the driver for the Microsoft Sidewinder joystick in Windows 2000 Professional?

# Guides to software management
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation
You might want to check out CheckInstall to manage source code installations/uninstallation

# Mandrake links
Mandrake home page
Mandrake Users website
Easy urpmi config for Mandrake
urpmi mini-HOWTO
All You Ever Wanted to Know About Urpmi But Never Dared Asking Before
Easy software management: Red Carpet
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
You didn't install the developmental packages? As root, command:
urpmi gcc
An Introduction to the Midnight Commander. You can install it by commanding:
urpmi mc
Midnight Commander home page

cheers!

Oh, come on now! Gee whiz. I was just pointing out that learning to use windows wasn't terribly easy for me. Remember how it was to set up a BBS in windows 3.11? That wasn't just point and click.

Remember when Windows 2000 first came out? You had to read the hardware compatability list, search all over for drivers--and hold your lips just right to get it to run.

With Win98/98se you had to install all of the drivers and software in the CORRECT ORDER or the .dll files got over-written by the wrong version and the whole thing was thrashed. They even invented a phrase for it--"DLL Hell."

What did Windows support offer you? Directions to re-install, but they never mentioned the correct order to put in the stuff! You were supposed to save each set of dlls between installs and check the fricking versions! And this was after waiting on average about an hour for a human being to pick up the phone.

How about NT? Do we really want to go there?

I figure I still owe Linux some time. And I admit I am a wussy and still dual-boot. I will not even attempt to do admin on a windows-mixed network from Linux. Maybe I'm a slow learner or something.

I wasn't trying to flame the person (priest_judas) who started this thread. I was trying to get him to recognize that he has invested (probably) years to learn windows, and even then he probably doesn't know advanced administration or networking (for Windows).

With Linux, he is having to learn administration along with finding his way around the O.S.. If you aren't familiar to administrative tasks in any shape or form, you are going to have to invest a minimum of time. Over time, as a user gains familiarity with filesystems and packages, learns to interpret cryptic notation (as used on the man pages), and developes the skills for searching the internet for all of the different guides and notes by other users:

He will appreciate that he can fix the installation instead of re-installing it.

He will customize his system to behave EXACTLY the way he wants it to act.

He will customize his system to look EXACTLY how he wants it to look.

He will have the ability to install exactly what he wants on his personalized system.

And he will be able to customize all of the applications, which he mostly got for free, to do precisely what he wants them to do.

Not only that, but should he choose to continue running windows, he will find that many of these skills are translatable to windows.

He will become a power-user--on any O.S. he chooses to run--and he will appreciate the choices which he has.

All of which takes time. And not really all of that much time either. For the skills you already have in windows to transfer to Linux, you first have to become familiar with Linux. Play around with it, wander around the filesystem, read the documentation from time to time. Once you are comfortable, the differences become less important, and you will be able to apply the process of doing things between the different O.S.-es --in both directions. It just doesn't happen overnight, that's all.

Sorry about the rant.

Amen to that! Well except it's alot easier to install spyware and viri in windows.

Try Debian

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I miss windows

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Do you miss your mommy too?

[RANT]
I have been using linux for 6-9 months now and NEVER ONCE have I regretted the fact that I cannot install a program by clicking a .exe! Who would want to have a program execute on their machine and not know what it is doing to their system?

I guess I am biased, but I mean cmon, how hard is it. Most Programs have a read me, follow the steps listed and be done with it. I'm sure half the people that spend the time here to whine about installing programs could have been half done by the time they finished the post. It has nothing to do with a level of difficulty, as most commonly installed programs have a nice how-to in their read me file, but it has to do with being lazy.

HAS M$ CORRUPTED A GENERATION!?

I applaud anyone willing to give Linux a shot, but before putting that cd in don't you have to say to yourself, "oh, wait, this is not MS Linux, hmmm, i wonder if it'll be different?"

Best put by Eqwatz "Linux is not windows"

Linux is not windows for a reason, if you are looking for MS simplicity, then stick to windows. If you want Linux stability and security, learn to spend some time installing programs. [/RANT]

BTW: this is not directed at the poster, but at the sheer volume of similar posts expecting Windows with a different shell when they boot up linux.....